Chapter 8

1. Chapter 8 Somatoform and Dissociative Disorders

2. Somatoform Disorders • A group of disorders where individuals experience significant physical symptoms for which there is no apparent organic cause. • Physical symptoms are actually experienced. • Difficult to diagnose • The individual may actually have some kind of physical illness that explains the symptoms; however, this actual illness or problem may be difficult to diagnosis. • Diagnosis can be helped by looking at the context in which the physical symptoms arise

3. Somatoform Disorders • Must be distinguished from: • Psychosomatic Disorders • Actual physical illness present and psychological factors contribute to the illness • Malingering • Deliberate faking of illness to avoid an unwanted situation or for some kind of gain • Factitious Disorders • Faking of illness to gain medical attention

4. Somatoform Disorders • Conversion Disorder • Loss of functioning in a part of the body for psychological reasons (e.g., blindness) • Somatization/Pain Disorder • History of complaints about physical symptoms, affecting many different areas of the body, for which medical attention has been sought but that appear to have no physical cause • Hypochondriasis • Chronic worry that one has a physical disease in the absence of evidence that one does; frequent seeking of medical attention • Body Dysmorphic Disorder • Excessive preoccupation with a part of the body the person believes is defective. • “Adonis Complex”

5. Dissociative Disorders • Dissociation – Fragmentation of one’s conscious experience, loss of awareness of oneself, loss of time and memory for events. • Dissociative Identity Disorder • “Multiple Personality Disorder” • Often associated with history of severe childhood abuse – a form of psychological escape • Depersonalization Disorder • Individuals experience episodes where they are detached from their mind or body • Dissociative Fugue • Person moves away and assumes a new identity with amnesia for the previous identity • Dissociative Amnesia • Person loses memory for important personal facts with no apparent organic cause